The Medicinal Chemistry division of the American Chemical Society and the European Federation of Medicinal Chemistry invite you to register for the ACS MEDI-EFMC Medicinal Chemistry Frontiers 2017 meeting in Philadelphia PA, June 25-28.

Early registration rates and abstract submission deadline have been extended to 17th May!

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Discounted rates are available to students, postdocs and academicians. This meeting features 8 scientific sessions and nearly 30 talks from an international group of speakers, as well as two poster sessions.

Poster presentations from postdoctoral and graduate students will be considered for two poster prizes, from J. Med. Chem. and ACS Med. Chem. Letters; each is worth $200. Those selected will give a 10 minute talk on their poster during the Wednesday morning session.

Attractive lodging rates at the newly renovated venue (Downtown Sheraton, 17th Street Philadelphia) have been negotiated by the organizers and can be booked on the accommodation page.

The French Medicinal Chemistry Society (Société de Chimie Thérapeutique - SCT) is pleased to invite you to Toulouse (Midi-Pyrénées) on 5-7 July, 2017 for the 53rd edition of the International Conference on Medicinal Chemistry (RICT 2017).

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The congress will be devoted to “Drug Discovery & Selection” and the main topics will be:

Immunotherapy-Oncology

Emerging & Neglected Diseases

Breakthrough in Technologies for Drug Discovery

Tackling the Delivery of Biologics

Access to Novel Molecular Entities

During the meeting the P. Ehrlich Lecture Prize of the ‘Société de Chimie Thérapeutique’ will be awarded to a researcher or a research team for his or her outstanding contributions to medicinal chemistry. Furthermore, the Pierre Fabre Award for Therapeutic Innovation will be presented to a researcher having accomplished a decisive action or made a discovery contributing to a therapeutic innovation. In addition, a poster session will provide the opportunity for all participants to present their current results. “Best poster” prizes will be awarded at the end of the meeting.

The scientific programme of RICT 2017 will start on Wednesday at 09:00 and will end on Friday at 13:30.

The Royal Society of Chemistry Medicinal Chemistry Residential School will cover topics of interest to drug discovery researchers, helping to increase understanding of the factors governing modern drug discovery from the initial concept through to translational science and intellectual property. Established in 1981, our Residential School has trained many of the world’s leading medicinal chemists working in the pharmaceutical industry and academic research institutes.

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Who should attend?

The school is designed for graduate and post-doctoral chemists with 1-5 years’ experience in the field of drug research. Drug discovery is an interdisciplinary subject so delegates from biological or computational backgrounds will benefit from attendance at the school. In addition, final year PhD students from pharmaceutical or organic chemistry contemplating a career in drug discovery are also encouraged to attend.

Tuberculosis, malaria and diseases caused by a diverse range of pathogens, including flaviviruses (e.g. dengue, West Nile), kinetoplastids (e.g. Chagas disease, leishmaniasis) and parasitic worms (e.g. filariasis), remain a cause of high mortality across the globe. However, an ever-improving understanding of the complex life-cycles of the disease-causing pathogens is presenting increasing opportunities for those seeking to tackle these global health problems.

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This meeting will focus on medicinal chemistry approaches to developing new medicines for diseases affecting global health. Keynote talks from international experts, alongside perspectives detailing case histories in drug discovery, will highlight the latest developments in the field whilst showcasing the opportunity for creativity and innovation.

Attendees

Bringing together leading exponents for an exciting spread of themed sessions, the meeting will appeal to anyone with an interest in drug discovery and medicinal chemistry. With great opportunities for collaborative academic–industrial partnerships and open innovation discovery programmes, researchers from both sectors will benefit from the networking opportunities that the meeting will also offer.

Report of the 13th EFMC Short Course: A matter of time; a kinetic perspective on drug-target interactions

‘How to use new insights into the kinetics of ligand – target interaction to improve the profile of the biological activities of your new compounds, thus making them better candidates for therapeutic use’ was the topic of the 13th EFMC short course held in the conference Centre "Oud Poelgeest" in the outskirts of the City of Science Leiden, from 23-26 April.

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About 30 participants — mainly from European countries, but the Americas were also represented — followed a programme of lectures and discussions with expert scientists from Belgium, Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands. The beautiful scene of the venue, a small castle in a park full of flowers contributed to the relaxed and informal atmosphere during the course.

The programming was coordinated by Prof. Ad IJzerman and Dr Laura Heitman, both from the Leiden Academic Centre for Drug Research. The course was concluded by group discussions on the different sub-themes of the programme. The central question was ‘how will insight into the kinetics of the ligand - target interactions influence the outcome of the investigations in the different phases of the drug discovery.’ How does the kinetic behaviour of a compound when binding to the target, reflected by association (kon) and dissociation (koff) rate constants influence its selection for further development. This question was addressed for the process of target selection and validation, lead finding and optimization, and (pre) clinical development.

At the end of the programme the theme of the 2018 EFMC Short Course was announced as “Peptides and Proteins”.

The EC of the EFMC is very grateful to Ad IJzerman and Laura Heitman and all the lecturers who together made the 13th Short Course such a successful event!

Ijzerman teaches

The group discussions

Report by Henk Timmerman

The 9 Oral Communications have been selected for the 7th edition of the EFMC International Symposium on Advances in Synthetic and Medicinal Chemistry (EFMC-ASMC’17)

The Symposium Chairs - Erick Carreira (ETH Zurich, Switzerland) and Karin Briner (Novartis, United States) – have selected the 9 Oral Communications that will be given the opportunity to give a 15’ talk at the EFMC International Symposium on Advances in Synthetic and Medicinal Chemistry (EFMC-ASMC’17) scheduled to take place in Vienna, Austria on 27-31 August, 2017.

Every year, the EFMC is funding grants for its organised events with the aim to support the participation of young academic scientists. The full list of event, application conditions and application form can be found on the website www.efmc.info.

Discover the EFMC’s Adhering Organisations: The Biological and Medicinal Chemistry Sector (BMCS) of the Royal Chemical Society (RSC)

The Biological and Medicinal Chemistry Sector (BMCS) is an interest group of the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) in the UK. The annually elected committee is primarily responsible for the organisation of Scientific Meetings and Symposia, supporting educational activities in the UK, and advising the Society on policies that directly affect the BMCS.

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Specifically, the BMCS aims to further the interests of all members of the RSC, both industrial and academic, involved in the pursuit and understanding of biologically active molecules. The predominant areas include pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals, flavours and fragrances. It also acts to promote public awareness of the crucial role played by chemistry in the modern industrial environment.

The BMCS is particularly active in the organisation of scientific meetings and does so in collaboration with a wide variety of other groups both within and external to the RSC. In recent years, the BMCS has been especially active in promoting some of the important interdisciplinary areas in which chemists are intimately involved. We typically run several meetings each year jointly with the Society for Chemical Industry, but we have also held internationally attended meetings with fellow societies across Europe. The BMCS also supports educational activities at both primary and secondary school level, such as the running of lectures and day schools, and the provision of equipment.

The BMCS administers two biennial awards, the Malcolm Campbell Award, the winning team of which was announced recently (see http://www.rsc.org/Membership/Networking/InterestGroups/BMCS/) and the Capps-Green-Zomaya Award, which acknowledge major scientific achievements in both academia and industry that have been carried out within the UK.

In addition, the BMCS publicises medicinal chemistry at universities by funding a ‘BMCS Lectureship’ and providing travel bursaries for UK-based postgraduate students undertaking research in medicinal chemistry to attend international symposia.

News from the Biological and Medicinal Chemistry Sector (BMCS) of the Royal Chemical Society (RSC)

The BMCS of the RSC is pleased to announce 3 upcoming events and its reports about the Retrosynthesis Competition Winners.

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TRANSPORT OF DELIGHT? The 2nd Symposium on Transporters in Drug Discovery and DevelopmentMonday-Tuesday, 15th - 16th May 2017 at Burlington House, Piccadilly, London

Registration closes soon! – Register now!

Cell surface transporters play a key role in human health and disease, both through their impact on drug disposition and as therapeutic targets in their own right. This meeting continues on from the first, successfully held in 2014, and is anticipated to become part of a regular series. It should be of interest to medicinal chemists, DMPK scientists and other workers with interests on the impact of transporters on human health

MAKING A WORLD OF DIFFERENCE: Medicinal Chemistry for World Health 218th – 20th June 2017, Tres Cantos, Spain

Registration is open!

Bringing together leading exponents for an exciting spread of themed sessions, the meeting will appeal to anyone with an interest in drug discovery and medicinal chemistry. With great opportunities for collaborative academic–industrial partnerships and open innovation discovery programmes, researchers from both sectors will benefit from the networking opportunities that the meeting will also offer.

Synopsis: Reflecting current trends in medicinal chemistry and pharmaceutical research, the scientific programme will feature lectures on the full range of drug targets, key enabling processes and technologies together with late breaker talks. Furthermore, one session will be dedicated to neglected tropical diseases including a planned live webcast that will be recorded for further distribution.

On Friday the 10th March 2017, SCI Headquarters in Belgrave Square, London hosted a celebration of organic chemistry, as it was the venue for the final of the 4th National Retrosynthesis Competition. This event was jointly organised by members of the RSC’s Heterocyclic and Synthesis Group and the Fine Chemicals Group and Young Chemists Panel of the SCI, under the leadership of Dr Rob Wybrow of Syngenta, UK. From ~40 teams who entered the preliminary round in December 2016, 10 were selected for the final by the judging panel, Dr Ross Denton (University of Nottingham), Professor Paul Davies (University of Birmingham), Dr Robin Attrill (GSK) and Dr Sharan Bagal (AstraZeneca). The finalists were drawn from a broad cross-section of chemistry-based organisations, universities and academic institutions, pharmaceutical companies, CROs and agrochemicals. At the final, teams presented their synthetic strategies for the as yet un-synthesized natural product, eucalrobusone D (DOI: 10.1002/chem.201601732), and answered questions from the audience and judges challenging their reasoning and route selection. The winning team was “SnaAZzy Synthesisers” from AstraZeneca and the runners up were “Dysfunctional Group” from the University of St. Andrews while “We Mean Bismuth” from the University of Oxford took third place. Special commendation from the judges was also made to Concept (previously Peakdale) “Chapel Team” for a very valiant effort.

The organising committee would like to thank all of the teams who entered the competition for their contributions as well as the judges, guests, attendees, sponsors and exhibitors for their significant input into the event. We would particularly like to thank the SCI for their generous support for this year’s competition, which included the donation of a year’s membership to all the members of the winning team and e-memberships to the runners-up. Based upon enthusiastic positive feedback from participants and special guests on the day the competition was hugely successful, underlining the key central importance of synthetic organic chemistry in both fundamental and applied research in the UK. Taking that positive momentum forwards, the organising committee has already begun their planning for the 5th National Retrosynthesis Competition, to be held in early March 2018. For further details on the next competition follow us on Twitter @UKRetroComp and LinkedIn.